WRAPPING UP 2022 in quilts mainly for now.

 This is a post for myself really with what I've done on the quilting front, where some have gone & thinking about 2023.

What I quilted this year from the beginning of the year, some recent & a few very old.

Celtic Garden of Hope.
One of my own designs.

Easy Peasy Baby quilt for our Podiatrist who had a little girl this year.
My design which is great quick one.

Macaron Mystery quilt, from a QAL by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs blog.
This quilt was sent to UK as a wedding gift for a very good friend's daughter.

Wacky One, another of my own designs.

Baby Pop Star, another QAL (and the one below).  This was run by Sandra Walker from mmmquilts & I gave the one above to car club friends who had a baby boy earlier this year.
The one below is still with me.

Empire Stars is made with a block pattern by Judy Martin.
These 4 blocks sat for a long time waiting to be made into something, as I'd had a few problems getting them to all be the same size.  I ended up with this after I changed the layout & border setting & am quite pleased with it.

The three quilts shown below were on a recent post and were from the naughty pile, waiting for years to be quilted & bound.  All finally done, though the tub of shame has filled a little again.

Starlet, from an old magazine pattern.

Star Struck, another from an old magazine & I custom quilted this one.

Bow Tie Magic, from some blocks in a Mary Ellen Hopkins book, the turned into a strippy at a retreat with Kay England way back around 2000.
This has been gifted to a little boy along with one from last year for his baby brother.

Charm Medallion, a lovely pattern by Cheryl Brickey from her book Just One Charm Pack.
Had fun making this.

A quilt finished very recently both in piecing & quilting which needs a better name than,
JUST BECAUSE.
Any suggestion?

 

Churn Dash Twist.
A squirrel that happened when I saw a sewalong on another blog, which I didn't participate in but had to give a try. 

That's my round up on the quilty front & as it is again a hot muggy day around 33 deg, I'm skiving off earlier than I was going to to get tea ready, watch some Yorkshire Vet tonight, then the fireworks displays from either Sydney or Melbourne.

I'll post this and link up with Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs even though I'm not a designer, pattern writer or such with very few quilt followers.

I'll be back hopefully with a few more catchups of days out etc. in the new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all, take care and hugs from Susan.

T'is BOXING DAY

 WHOOPS............where did December go?

My very cute Xmas tree made from old pallets, popped into the front garden & lit with a string of fairy lights.  Very simple decorations this year with only my door wreath (you've seen before), as well as my little filled sleigh on a patchwork Christmas runner on the table.

The lights on the tree, in the dark     -  below.

I have been quiet, I know, as late November, we had a quick trip to Canberra, Sydney, Gosford & Orange to see our two boys and grandchildren, my young brother and my oldest friend.  

Coming home seemed to be filled with never ending washing, cleaning the caravan, tidying the yard & planning for Christmas and now that is all over.................aaaaaaaaaaaaH!

After my fall in October I still did a little sewing on one of my own designed quilts and although the big  machine hasn't done much hopefully it will all be go in the New Year apart from another quick trip to N.S.W. to have a "bon voyage" get together for my beautiful eldest grandchild, Miss A.  who is off to live in UK for a couple of years with her partner Mr. M.  She already has a job lined up and he is working his way through a long list, I believe.

Below is a photo Miss A and her Dad, our eldest son on her graduation in early December with a diploma so she can now look after 0 to 5 years olds at a Child Care Centre as they are called here in Oz.

We will miss her badly.

The quilt below is the one I talked of in the above blurb.

DECO DELIGHT

Whilst away I took very few photos, as when we are pulling the caravan it is very hard to pullover  for a photo opportunity.  I took a few in Bathurst at the caravan park as we were departing of a few cute bits'n'pieces.

Veg beds ready to be planted above & a very Australian "loo" from days gone by.

There was also  "mini golf" for a few hours of fun.

On our way home we pulled into Cowra for a look at their well known rose gardens, then pootled on and arrived home, content to have seen so many of our family after such a LONG few years.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas as we did at our DD's yesterday and can look forward to a happy & prosperous New Year.

I hope to get back into a bit more blogging, sewing and fiddling with garden etc. as 2023 emerges.                 Going to find a cool spot as it has reached 36℃ now & I'm now sooooooo hot.

Take care all and hugs from Susan.

TAKING A TUMBLE.

 The reason I've been quiet.  I had a stupid fall on the 1st of October on the footpath in front of next door, hurting my chest/rib area and taking a chunk out of the heel of my hand.  Lucky I didn't smack my face into the path.  Turns out I had 3 cracked ribs & severe bruising too.  I'm OK now & although we still got to do a few things during late October, the weather has been utterly vile.  It's rained all day here today with quite a gusty wind.  Although we've not had the amount that has hit some parts of N.S.W., it's still nothing like a normal late Spring.  When it has warmed a little, the humidity has been extreme.  Enough of my moaning and let's see some photos I've snapped when we did manage to get outside.

The Garden.

The azaleas flowered well, but then smashed by the rain.

The wisteria and wonga vine both looked lovely but left a frightful mess on the steps.

My snowball bush was gorgeous with some of the biggest balls, but with the heavy rain, the weight of the sodden flowers nearly broke a couple of branches.  They survived intact luckily.

Dutch iris were lovely.

Walking.

We have decided to tackle The Great Southern Rail Trail & have done 2 small legs so far.  I'll just post what we did for the first part.

One of the signs with some information.
We started from Leongatha and headed towards Koonwarra, but only went as far as Gwyther Siding.

At the start of the trail, we passed a Tyre Service with the hugest pile of tyres I've ever seen.

Further along we passed this row of columns, but no information was available to say what it had been.

Farming countryside.

We didn't have to give way to any stock, though we saw plenty of cattle.

As far as we went on the first day.  We think after we turned and went back, we'd done about 8kms.

WATER.......

A small court near to ours, where a creek runs under the road and as you can see, it had other ideas one day and this is what it looked like. It's definitely been "wet" of late.

Quilting.

I have kept busy, although it's been slow going.  I managed to do a small wall hanging for  a bit of a challenge for myself & something someone mentioned I might like to join in with, though everyone else had started long before me, so I did simple, small & fun.

The challenge was a Churn Dash quilt, but I played with a block I'd seen "somewhere" & done a quick sketch and ended up with my Churn Dash Twist.
This photo was taken at the community garden in Braeside Park.

I had one on the machine when I took the tumble and finally managed to finish it a few weeks later.  I have shown it unquilted.

I've still not really named this, but had called the pattern when I designed it 
Gee Whiz.  (silly)

Lastly I popped this one below on the machine yesterday & had it off by lunch today.  The blocks were made many years ago from a Judy Martin pattern, but I just couldn't get it quite right, so only made a few, then cobbled them together and came up with this.  No binding as yet.

Empire Stars.

OK, that's enough from me today as it coming onto near teatime and I've other things I need to do.

Hope somebody may read this, as I'm wondering how many people still want to follow along after my absence.  I hope to pop back on with some more rail trail walking soon, especially if weather clears up a bit. 

Until next time, take care all and hugs to all.

Susan.

QUILTY CATCHUP.

 A very quick post for a couple of link ups I usually participate in.

The first being Sandra at mmm.quilts with her DrEaMi link with the squirrels lurking in our sewing rooms.

I bought some lovely magnolia fabric, then saw some more a year later and decided I needed to do something with it and along came another of my Easy Peasy quilts which I quite often do for a much needed baby quilt when the occasion arises.  The flowery squares weren't very "square" so a bit of cursing ensued and I finally ended up with this.  I really wanted it finished so I could take photos with my own magnolia, but mine has few flowers left, so I asked my elderly neighbour if we could use his for my photo.  DH obliged by holding it beside his tree.  It is not quilted yet.

My favourite and only finish this month for the linkup with Cheryl from Meadow Mist Design is actually a pattern I made from her last book (she has another in the works) and I'm very pleased with it after procrastinating on the background fabric.  It was made using a charm square pack and called Medallion in the book.

Poor hubby once again holding this one too, this morning beside our flowering Wonga vine.

Whilst debating how to do some photography earlier with rain pending, I snapped the photo below with Septembers few quilts I've worked on.

On the left is the Charm Medallion, middle, one of my own designs now waiting to be bound and on the right, the Easy Peasy Magnolia, still to be quilted.  Noticing I have a pink theme going on.........uh!

All from me for now & off to link up hopefully.  I still have other things to catch up on, so must find time to post about that stuff too.

Take care all and hugs.

Susan.

Looooong overdue post.

Still not feeling much like posting or even being myself, but we have kept sort of busy, with mainly bits/n/bobs of all sorts.  I'll break back in slowly and hopefully get September sorted over the rest of the month.  Here goes................

A DAY OUT & A BIT OF CRAFT.

This particular day saw me take a few quilts, camera, our picnic lunch & lots of enthusiasm for a day of sunshine after so much dreariness, which is now back with us I'm afraid.  

LANCY LOOKOUT.

I've shown Lancy lookout before as I do enjoy taking quilt photos there, then we had a meander through the hills & on down to Leongatha. 

Some interesting clouds in this photo.

A huge gum tree, some of which is breaking away slowly.  They are notorious for dropping limbs when they feel like it.

Next we took some quilt snaps whilst there and at the next unnamed lookout where we ate our lunch.

These are three old pieced tops from my tub of shame that I made from magazines or books way back in the very late 90s and early 2000s.  I finally quilted & bound them this winter & will possibly donate or sell, as my poor cupboard is getting very full.  I'd also taken a few snaps inside too, so will put them below.                                                                                                              

                                                                                           

And a close up of the quirky quilting on the purple one.

A SURPRISE 

One morning early this month we heard a steam train whistle & wondered what on earth that was all about, rang a friend & found out they were running a steam service between a couple of stations on our line & people could pay to have a ride.  Lots of children these days aren't familiar with these big beasts.  We opted to get to one of the crossings and take some photos.  As there is quite a steep part of the line, it was both a steam engine on the front and an old diesel at the back, so they could do a push/pull as there is no turning around point on the Gippsland line near here.

The steam is seen in the distance between the trees.

Nearing the crossing with a puff of black smoke.

The diesel bringing up the rear and lots of onlookers.

 This brought back so many memories of  my childhood, as steam trains still ran outside of big cities when I was growing up.

FROM THE GARDEN.

Although the garden is looking partially reasonable, it has been such a long, hard winter and I've done very little outside, but the bulbs have come out beautifully and other things have flowered fleetingly, before being battered by wind and rain.

The poor Magnolia is hanging in there.... just.  Notice the 2 white flowers on the left at the top.
What is that all about?

The little round garden out the front is full of Earlicheer daffs, friesias, a few crocus and muscari.

I also picked a few bits'n'bobs to put inside.

Excuse my messy side table.  I do use the coaster for my mug and there is always sewing paraphernalia lurking near my chair for working on things after tea.

☔☔RAIN..................and more rain!!!!!!☔

We've had more than our share this winter and there is so much laying in places we've never seen it in before.

We took an afternoon drive last Monday and went up to Blue Rock Dam to see the water flowing down the spillway and to our surprise, just before we headed for the dam wall, we spied these kangaroos in a paddock.  Once we stopped they decided to bounce away.

Can you spot all five.  At this point they were watching us and I snapped this one from the car window.

But, then they thought better of us staying there and hopped away.  That one you can see above had just jumped over those fences in the background.  

The road over the dam wall and spillway.

Just loved the patterns the flowing water made.

OK, I'll leave it at that for today, as we did have another couple of odd outings if it was fine, into the countryside.                                                                                                                                                    Have a great week all, take care and hugs from Susan.